What would you take?

The 1960 movie, "Time Machine," starring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux and based on the H.G. Wells classic novel of the same name ended with Rod Taylor's use of the machine to return to the future and the Eloi people.

Before he did that, he'd travelled back to his "present day" time of c.1900 to meet with some companions in his library. They were surprised when he slipped away for the last time and were mystified to discover that he'd taken five books back to the future with him. They (and the movie audience) never knew what five books he'd chosen to take with him.

If you saw this movie, what five books do you think this character brought back to the innocent, technology ignorant, and non-aggressive Eloi?

Given your own present-day (2005) circumstances and knowledge and sophistication, if you had to leave your life behind to help shape a new civilization, what five books would you choose to take and why?

After you answer that question, let's ask it again but not limit the answer to only book titles. Say you were allowed to take ten anything to this new world you would be helping to shape, what ten things would you take? It could be books, technological marvels, any convenience of modern life, anything at all. Assume that any object you choose (example: telephone) would also be sent along with whatever technology was required to make it practical.

So... what would you take?

Explain this "catch-phrase"

No, don't go to your nearest dictionary.com website or attempt to write down someone else's already written down definitions for the following phrases. Instead, write a paragraph or screenplay formatted scene or a short story or poem that illustrates the gist of the word. The theme of your piece IS the meaning of the word. Got it? Good. Now, do it. Oh yeah... since theme is central and unifying, you wouldn't want to try more than one phrase at a time for any one piece of writing. One phrase per writing sample... And here are your "theme phrases": cost-effective mountain spring water native born hypoallergenic urban legend single parent cushiony soft antibacterial full-service multi-tasking Okay, after you've done your paragraph or essay or short story with a theme determined by ONE of the above phrases, go ahead and see if you can write a piece that uses ALL of the above words (no particular theme requirement, that will be up to you). Want an even tougher challenge? Write ten "theme pieces," each one based on one of the above phrases.